Swiss Life
Markus Leibundgut, chief executive of Swiss Life Germany, is take over as chief executive of Swiss Life Switzerland on 1 April 2017. Ivo Furrer, who has held this position since 2008, has decided to leave the company.
Leibundgut started his career as chief financial officer, heading the finance & actuarial services business area of Swiss Life Switzerland, where he also served as a member of the executive board. In 2013 he became chief operating officer, stepping up to the role of chief executive for Germany in April 2014.
A search is currently underway to find a replacement for the role of chief executive of the German operation.
Columbia Threadneedle
Columbia Threadneedle Investments has appointed Michelle Scrimgeour as chief executive, Europe, Middle East & Africa (Emea) and chief executive of Threadneedle Asset Management. She will also join the executive leadership team of Ameriprise Financial.
Scrimgeour joins from M&G Investments, where she is currently chief risk officer, and a director of M&G Group. Before joining M&G, she was at BlackRock, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, and Mercury Asset Management.
Legg Mason
Adam Gent, head of UK sales, is to leave Legg Mason to pursue other opportunities. Head of distribution Justin Eede will take over his responsibilities until a replacement is found.
Gent began his investment industry career at Chichester-based Thesis Asset Management where he held roles on the investment management side, before moving onto Henderson Global Investors to work in sales. In 2007 he joined Legg Mason, working his way up to become head of UK sales in 2010.
M&G Investments
M&G Investments has appointed Neil Donnelly as chief compliance officer. He joins from Pioneer Investments, where he has spent the last 14 years, most recently as global head of compliance. Donnelly is due to begin his new role in February.
He brings with him 16 years’ experience in compliance and related functions, managing teams in the UK, Europe and Asia. A lawyer by training, Donnelly was called to the Irish Bar in 1994 and spent his early career first with KPMG and then with legal firm Norton Rose.
Charles Stanley
Charles Stanley has appointed four directors to the Private Client Investment Management (PCIM) development team to work with Gary Teper, plc director and head of investment management, to support the firm’s investment managers.
The four directors are Jonathan Arthur, Rupert Boyle, Chris Harris-Deans, and Juliet Wedderburn.
Arthur has joined from Hanson Asset Management, where he was head of investment management. Wedderburn previously ran her own financial services consulting business, was a partner at Above Wealth and head of London private wealth management at Deutsche Bank.
Both Boyle and Harris-Deans are internal appointments; Boyle has been at the firm for over three years and prior to this role was the branch liaison manager, while Harris-Deans took on the role of director of regional development four years ago.
The four directors will oversee all teams and branches within PCIM, including focusing on business development and identifying operational efficiencies. They will also act as an interface between the investment managers and senior management.
HM Treasury
The Treasury has jointly appointed Nucleus’s founder and chief executive, David Ferguson, and RBS’s head of design and transformation, Louise Smith, as regional fintech envoys to boost the growth of fintech in Scotland, to raise its profile and ensure the UK remains competitive in the market.
Ferguson and Smith will be responsible for building regional and national networks which seek to ensure a greater level of co-ordination and collaboration between fintech companies, government, investors and regional fintech hubs.
They will also be raising awareness of regional fintech opportunities, identifying market failures and blockers to innovation and supporting the development of specific infrastructure to support the growth of fintech in the region.
The initial appointments are for one year and will be reviewed and extended by mutual consent.
